disinformation | the public relations firms of dictators

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the public relations firms of dictators
by Nick Mamatas (Laddertrick@gvny.com) - May 21, 2001

Running a dictatorship isn't all it is cracked up to be. Once, centuries ago, a tyrant could wave a hand and a phalanx of soldiers would spill into the Great Hall dissidents would be dispatched instantly, and their viscera placed at the feet of the dictator. In these days though, where many people have somehow adopted notions of the general equality of human beings and of limitations to the power of the state, slaughtering people is much more complex.

Enter public relations. Some of the bloodiest regimes on earth have hired PR firms to defend their activities. Both the leading governments of the world and banana republics have tried to sell their adventures in ordnance and warfare like soap, and the public has bought it.

Burson-Marsteller, the world's largest PR firm, has a rogue's gallery of despotic clients. The firm worked with the Nigerian government to obscure evidence of genocide in Biafra. The company also set up smoke screens for the Argentinian government to continue "disappearing" people, and worked with South Korea's military government in order to prepare the world for the 1988 Olympics, which occurred just a year after the "People's Power" movement finally ousted the dictators. And while some dictators are called red, their money is still green. B-M also represented Nicolae Ceaucescu, Romania's mini-Stalin, until the Christmas revolution broke the back of that regime. Apparently, Ceaucescu forgot that impoverished citizens of command economy regimes tend to not to own televisions (thus, the people missed many of his photo ops). However, the Romanians filmed Ceaucescu's genocide trial, and staged his death for the global media's cameras.

Americans, on the other hand, watch too much television. The Bush administration and other saber-rattlers took advantage of the eyes-open brain-shut power of the hypno-ray in the buildup to 1991's Persian Gulf War. Hill and Knowlton, a public relations firm, fabricated the story of Iraqi soldiers dumping Kuwaiti children out of hospital incubators, and even got the story before Congress. Even Amnesty International was suckered. The "witness" Nayirah was later revealed as the daughter of Sheik Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to America. Covert Action Quarterly (Spring 1993) discovered that Hill and Knowlton had been paid $11 million to conduct the campaign by the Citizens for a Free Kuwait. The same year, a joint British/Canadian news crew interviewed medical teams and visited Kuwaiti hospitals, and proved that the incubator story was false.

More recently, Ruder Finn took an assignment by Bosnian and Croatian groups and happily pumped out stories designed to equate Slobodan Milosevic with Adolph Hitler. That the Croatian forces during World War II were actually explicitly pro-Nazi didn't seem to come to the fore until later, after many mainstream groups dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and ethnic oppression in particular joined with the Croatian government in its denouncement of Serbia as a fascist state.

Pictures can fool the world, and recently, one of them did. In 1992, an Independent Television News team led by journalist Penny Marshall shot footage of men staring out from behind barbed wire. They were Bosnian prisoners inside a Serbian concentration camp, ITN explained. The picture was very misleading: the ITN photographers were actually inside the compound, and their subjects were outside the fence, looking in. LM, a libertarian magazine that had been founded by some disaffected former Marxists, pointed this out, and was promptly sued out of existence thanks to Britain's stringent libel laws.

Not every would-be dictator has the charisma of a Castro, or the stately profile of a Chun Doo Hwan. Thanks to the science of public relations, dictators don't need to be naturally talented. B-M calls its work "Perception Management" and when state and capital combine, perception can be managed as easily as working life or military deployments. It is still good to be king.

Ruder-Finn: A Public Relations Firm
I got no further than the Flash animation on the opening page, and which consists of two throbbing yellow circles on a white background, and the sounding of a hollow pitched percussion instrument on the audio track. Loses three pyramids, even though the animation is very hypnotic and makes me want to kill Serbs and buy soap.

The Globalization Of Public Relations
An examination of the history and trends of public relations, from a pro-public relations point of view. Gushy, but thorough. This article even has the following philosophical boilerplate: "Finally, practitioners must realize that their actions are heavily value laden and they must be aware of the ideologies they are imposing on their audiences." No kidding, you can't sell an ideology if you don't even know what it is.

The Media And The Demonization Of The Serbs
A great article by Canadian activist Marjaleena Repo. While the influence of PR firms in international politics is largely unknown in the United States, PR firm officials apparently brag about their public relations coups on French TV. James Harff of Ruder Finn explains what his firm did: "We won by targeting the Jewish audience. Almost immediately there was a clear change of language in the press, with the use of words with high emotional content such as ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, etc. which evoke images of Nazi Germany and the gas chambers of Auschwitz."

Diplomacy For Hire: Public-Relations & Lobbying Firms Are A Hidden Piece Of The Balkan Puzzle
This Boston Phoenix article (June 1st, 1999) by Bob Geman looks not only at PR firms, but also at the even more stealthy lobbyists who manipulate the op-ed pages and the statements of top officials. The end of the Cold War has led to a boom in government accounts, as former enemies dust themselves off and present themselves as dream boat business partners.

Along Came The Trans-nationals
A historical piece examining the rise of transnational corporations and the links between them, PR firms and the media. A bit confused, in that this article posits globalization itself as an independent actor that gave rise to the current media-informational-industry complex. This suggests, wrongly, that economic nationalism and protectionism practiced by the leading economies would have led to a freer system than we currently have. A trip to Burma would eliminate that notion very quickly though.

ITN v LM
An interesting Web site, eviscerated by British libel law. The ITN suit also broke LM and put the magazine out of business. Former LM editor Mike Hume's statement is still active though, but who knows for how long?

Burn Blast Bomb Cut
This review of the film Three Kings (1999) appeared in Britain's Sight And Sound magazine (February 2000). Not the usual thumbs-up/thumbs-down, this review examines the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein as cultural artifacts, but is careful not to take its ideas too far and claim that, to quote, Baudrillard, that "the Gulf War did not take place." Three Kings is also a good flick. See it.

Burson-Marsteller
Full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing, this is the official Web site of the world's largest public relation firm, Burson-Marsteller. A lot of frames, a lot of copy, but almost nothing of importance is explained here. A perfect example of public relations at work.

Europa Bio's PR Friends: Burson-Marsteller: PR For The New World Order
This article by Carmelo Ruiz explores B-M's role in supporting dictators and the multinational business interests who love them. B-M was also involved in the media presentation of the Contras, and an even more implacable enemy of humanity, Nutrasweet.

A Critical Look: True Reporting?
A report on the ITN v LM libel case, though a bit outdated now, since the trial is over. This article points out, largely as an aside, how much more powerful images can be than mere words. Even some of the so-called "prisoners" ITN photographed admitted that the camps were safer and that they were allowed to leave, but one thin man staring out over a strand of barbed wire was enough to inflame the public imagination against the Serbs. The picture is included here, so be sure to avert your brain.

Disinformation Dossier On Subliminal Advertising: Return Of The Hidden Persuaders
Check out the Disinformation dossier on Subliminal Advertising: Return Of The Hidden Persuaders.

Disinformation Dossier On Live From Bosnia: The Atrocity Exhibition
Check out the Disinformation dossier on Live From Bosnia: The Atrocity Exhibition.

Disinformation Dossier On Perception Management & Domestic Propaganda
Check out the Disinformation dossier on Perception Management & Domestic Propaganda.

Disinformation Dossier On The Ad Campaign To Wash Your Brain
Check out the Disinformation dossier on The Ad Campaign To Wash Your Brain.

Disinformation Dossier On www.FijiCrisis.com.fj
Check out the Disinformation dossier on www.FijiCrisis.com.fj.

Disinformation Dossier On Douglas Rushkoff
Check out the Disinformation dossier on Douglas Rushkoff.

Disinformation Dossier On Noam Chomsky
Check out the Disinformation dossier on Noam Chomsky.

Mugabe Hires US Spin Doctors
This Sunday Times article (April 22, 2001), by Nicholas Rufford, details how Robert Mugabe paid 2 million pounds, to hire the public relations firm Cohen and Woods International, to improve his image on the global stage.

U.S. Army Report on Bosnian Media Spin